Understanding Zoom fatigue and how to make videoconferencing less anxiety provoking with Dr. Géraldine Fauville

Géraldine Fauville, PhD, joins Lorenzo Norris, MD, to discuss some of the causes of Zoom fatigue and strategies that can make videoconferences productive.

Dr. Fauville is the lead researcher on the Zoom Exhaustion & Fatigue Scale project. She also is assistant professor in the department of education, communication, and learning at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden). Dr. Fauville has no disclosures.

Dr. Norris is associate dean of student affairs and administration at George Washington University, Washington. He has no disclosures.

Take-home points

• Dr. Fauville started her research on Zoom fatigue in the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford (Calif.) University, founded by Jeremy N. Bailenson, PhD. The lab has pioneered research on the common but poorly understood phenomenon of Zoom fatigue. 
• Videoconferencing, often through Zoom, has allowed people to connect throughout the pandemic, but there are features of this modality that can contribute to stress, and for many, social anxiety.
• Dr. Fauville and Dr. Norris discuss Zoom fatigue and which dynamics of videoconferencing contribute to a sense of anxiety, fatigue, and affect our general wellness in a society that has come to rely on videoconferencing as a primary form of communication and central to parts of our economy during the pandemic. 
• Dr. Fauville discusses how the size of faces on the screen and feeling observed activate anxiety and stress. Constant mirroring from seeing yourself reflected from the camera onto a screen can lead to self-judgment and negative emotions. Loss of traditional nonverbal communication and being forced to pay attention to verbal cues or exaggerate gestures can increase the cognitive load associated with conversations that occur via videoconference. Videoconferencing also restricts mobility, because people feel tethered to a small area within their camera’s view where they can be seen. 

Summary

• During an in-person meeting, people will stare at you while you’re speaking, but on videoconferencing it can feel as if all eyes are on you the whole time, which contributes to stress and social anxiety. 
• Dr. Fauville discusses the “large face” dynamic; if these conferences were real-life interactions, it would be like having a very large face just a few inches from ours,  which can feel like an invasion of privacy. For the brain, having a face in close proximity to yours signals either a desire for intimacy or conflict. 
  • Recommendation: Minimize the videoconferencing application as much as possible and keep the size of the faces smaller. 
• Zoom and other platforms lead to “constant mirroring.” Seeing our own image can result in persistent self-evaluation and judgment, which can contribute to anxiety and negative emotions. 
  • Recommendation: Keep your camera on but hide self-view; doing so can combat this constant mirroring.
• Videoconferencing has severely limited mobility during meetings, which make people feel trapped in the view of the camera. 
  • Recommendation: Using a standing desk allows for more freedom from the view of the camera. You can stretch your legs, walk around in the view of the camera, and create distance, especially if you have an external keyboard. 
• Nonverbal communication and behaviors are essential cues between humans. Videoconferencing that focuses on head and shoulders diminishes a large portion of body language. Videoconferences are more taxing for the brain than audio-only communication because people have to be even more in tune to the cues in speakers' verbal tones, and some nonverbal cues, such as nodding, become exaggerated. 
  • Recommendation: Organizations should create guidelines aimed at mitigating Zoom fatigue. Suggestions include allowing people to turn off their cameras for portions of meetings or didactics, having a mix of audio/telephone and video meetings, and assessing whether the information from some meetings can included in email messages or shared documents. 
• Dr. Fauville and colleagues created the Zoom Exhaustion & Fatigue Scale (ZEF Scale) to quantify the phenomenon. Fifteen items on the scale focus on five dimensions of Zoom fatigue, such as general, visual, emotional, social, and motivational fatigue.  Part of the evaluation of Zoom fatigue should include examining how many videoconferences you have per day, the amount of time between each, and how long the conferences last. 

References

Ramachandran V. Stanford researchers identify four causes for ‘Zoom fatigue’ and their simple fixes. Stanford News. 2020 Feb 23.

Fauville G et al. Zoom Exhaustion & Fatigue Scale. SSRN.com. 2021 Feb 23.

Bailenson JN. Nonverbal overload: A theoretical argument for the causes of Zoom fatigue. Technology, Mind & Behavior. 2021 Feb 23;2(1). doi: 10.1037/tmb0000030.

Zoom Exhaustion & Fatigue Scale survey: https://vhil.stanford.edu/zef/

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Show notes by Jacqueline Posada, MD, associate producer of the Psychcast; assistant clinical professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at George Washington University in Washington; and staff physician at George Washington Medical Faculty Associates, also in Washington. Dr. Posada has no conflicts of interest.

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